268 posts
Latest Posts by ignorethisrandom - Page 3
https://tvline.com/2022/06/23/the-buccaneers-tv-series-order-apple-josie-totah-cast/
Please be good, please be good.
https://tvline.com/2022/06/23/the-buccaneers-tv-series-order-apple-josie-totah-cast/
Please be good, please be good.
books i read in 2021: “evelina” by frances burney ★★★★☆
“I revere you. I esteem and admire you above all human beings. You are the friend to whom my soul is attached as to its better half. You are the most amiable, the most perfect of women. And you are dearer to me than language has the power of telling.”
Manston was on his legs again in an instant. A fiery glance on the one side, a glance of pitiless justice on the other, passed between them. It was again the meeting in the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite: ‘Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.’
Thomas Hardy, Desperate Remedies (via talesofpassingtime)
I’ll say it: Aeneas Manston is an underrated villain from Victorian Literature.
Pamela Andrews: [is a teenage servant girl who is continually sexually harassed by her boss, escalating into flat-out kidnapping, and is subject to repeated rape attempts which she only (and somewhat implausibly) escapes by repeated fainting fits]
Pamela Andrews: [ends up agreeing to marry this creep once he sees the error of his ways and “reforms”, whereupon Mr. Creep gives her patronizing marital advice and graciously forgives the hapless servants, clergymen, etc. who pissed him off by trying to help her]
Me in college reading Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded: Hmm, so this early novel not only had a raving fandom, but a raving hatedom. I can see why -
Antipamelists: I’ll say! He actually married a servant! How obscene!
Me: Hang on -
Antipamelists, Henry Fielding front and center: Okay but what if Pamela was actually a gold-digging conniving hussy who was playing the victim all along -
Me: Oh, fuck you too.
Honestly...that’s perfect!
…Mansfield Park from Edmund’s perspective might look a good deal like Emma, actually.
You’ve got the good sense, the quiet life, the being accustomed to having the best judgement in his little community; then the subsequent falling in and out of temptation and trials, his own judgement proving faulty, other people’s affairs going in unexpected directions; and finally, though unelaborated on, the “oh. OH” moment when Edmund realizes that Fanny has been RIGHT HERE the WHOLE TIME.
My Montage Of Lost Things…
Florence + the Machine “Prayer Factory”
Everyone watching Sanditon: Nothing can replace Charlotte and Sidney!
Me: Will Tom Parker’s plans for Sanditon succeed? Will Georgiana meet more fortune hunters and turn them down with a wicked burn?! Oh and I’m sure Charlotte will turn out fine. She’s a lovely woman who doesn’t need a man to complete her, especially one that marries women for money and changes his mind at the drop of a hat. But really, WHAT ABOUT THE REGATA! I must learn about the Parkers’ latest plans for our Sanditon!
Bring the tea and cucumber sandwiches cut ever so thin
Sanditon Season 2
Hi! I'm really enjoying your blog, your predictions for S2 and how you analyse the characters! I apologize if you already did this but I'm curious about your thoughts regarding Edward (especially if you think he cares about Esther) and Clara as characters and about the nature of their relationship with each other. Thank you and happy holidays!
Hey, nonnie!
So sorry to take this long to answer your ask. I was so consummed with my fanfic in December and then so tired I didn’t manage to get to these meatier asks sooner. Hopefully, you’re still interested in my answer.
I haven’t actually talked about Edward Denham on my blog before, aside from a little comment in one of my first metas about him and Esther being Davies’ take on Mary and Henry Crawford from Mansfield Park. In fact at the start of the series the Mansfield Park connection is completed with Clara in the place of the innocent ingenue Fanny Price that is to be seduced by the rake with his sister’s support.
One of the coolest things Davies does with Sanditon is that he takes full advantage of our Jane Austen proficency by littering this world with all the familiar Austen archetypes. But just as soon as you begin to lament that this world offers too much of the familiar and not enough of the strange, he pulls the rug from under you and reveals these characters to be something else entirely.
And no one exemplifies this better than Esther. The cold, mercenary harpy bent on swindeling her aunt and ruining a poor girl’s reputation in the process is revealed to be the true victim of this little traingle. A girl who fell in love with a bad man without any chance of escaping him. And the innocent ingenue? Well … Clara is about as far removed from Fanny Price as one can get.
However, the one character that remains unaltered, in fact the character that holds the fewest surprises in the whole of Sanditon is Edward. He is exactly as advertised: the Henry Crawford bent on seducing virginal Fanny, Wickham planning to “whisk” Georgiana away, Willoughby playing with Marianne and then discarding her.
I actually think Willoughby might actually be the closest analog to Edward. Willoughby is, by far, in my mind the worst of Austen’s villians. A true, clinical case of narcisism if there’s every been one.
Willoughby and Edward aren’t dangerous simply because they will use you to get money the way Wickham does or because they want to saw wild oats. They are dangerous because they are perfectly willing to gaslight and use their victims for as long as they possibly can.
They aren’t content to simply go on their merry way once it becomes clear you’ve figured out their true character. They will come back and prod as many times as possible, searching for any weakness which might allow them entry back into your life. Their objective isn’t just material (although both Edward and Willighouby love luxuary when they get it without having to work for it) but emotional as well.
Everytime Esther relents to Edward, everytime she follows his lead, his influence over her grows. Their relationship is all the more damaging and dangerous because she’s stuck in a house with him 24/7.
The worst part of it is, Edward doesn’t trick Esther by making her believe he is better than he is. She sees all his ugliness, his faults, his selfishness and ego. What he does is far worse: he makes her believe she is as bad as him.
He takes this naturally honest, compassionate and intelligent woman and twists her up into a shell of herself. He breakes down her selfesteem to such a degree that while she’s with him, she convinces herself of her own immorality and after she finally manages to leave him, she thinks of herself as worthless for having allowed herself to be manipulated by him. She is in a lose-lose situation either way.
Esther’s relationship with Edward is scary, sad and very, very real in a way that becomes all the more uncomfortable, the more you think about it so it’s hard to talk about love in this context.
The real question is: can someone who is inherently unhealthy love in a positive way? I do think Edward probably loves her but his way of loving is tained by his own twisted personality so it’s not something worth having in any case.
As for his relationship with Clara, on the surface it’s a classic cat and mouse game. But I do think beneath all that is some sort of twisted attraction probably born from selfloathing. They can recognize something of themselves in each other and they end up forming a bond, if their last conversation is any indication:
Edward: The vanquished enemy retreats.
Clara: I was never your enemy.
[…]
Clara: Look at you … Alone and unloved. Trust me. That’s not an easy placeto find yourself in. I will spare you a thought now and then. I know you will think of me.
I do think in a theoretical season 2, Edward and Clara would be back, possibly scheeming together.
Thanks for the ask!
Georgianna and Charlotte’s friendship was my favorite part of season 1, along with Clara and Ester’s back-and-forth.
I will gladly watch more of both shows just for these four characters.
Some parallels.
Dorothea runs into her marriage like it’s an exciting college internship...and then wonders why it isn’t working out.
The start of every Pixar/Disney film after the trailers and Pixar short before the film...
Brief Encounter (1945)
The lack of typical music and the hand-held camera work really improves the series, it gives the show a documentary-like feel, making the uncomfortable subject matter all the more disarming. Everything about this show seems designed to get under people’s skin. If this show doesn’t make your skin crawl, then it’s on too tight. If this show doesn’t pull at your heart strings, you need to loosen them.
The unsung hero of the HBO’s OZ is the person who was in charge of all the ambiance and horror sound effects and shit. Without them, the series wouldn’t be nearly as fucking intense as it was
A disabled character who still has more personality than Bran Stark. Oz for the win.
(Joking aside, Augustus is an interesting character, especially since his being disabled is just one part of his character, not his defining feature.)
Today’s disabled character of the day is Augustus Hill from Oz, who is a wheelchair user
Ben Whishaw and “Mrs Tish” on the set of “A Very English Scandal”…
Via Laura Ingall on IG
I finished the first book in the series. I came here to see if anyone else liked the first book like I did.
Whoah!
Maybe I should ease on back out the door I came in...
Shipping wars get ugly fast.
I still enjoyed the book though.
august slipped away | sidney/charlotte
